The Reluctant Lord (Dragon Lords) (17 page)

“Vlad!” He heard Clara scream.

Suddenly the alien screeched louder and expelled him. Vlad was slingshotted away from the creature. He flew through the air, stopping only when he hit the rock wall. His head whipped back onto stone and he dropped to the ground in a daze. The acrid taste of fluid in his mouth caused him to gag and cough even as he tried to find his breath.

Clara screamed again, this time an incoherent sound. The alien’s screech grew louder in response. Someone pulled at his arm to lift him up. Vlad tried to move toward the sound of his wife and stumbled.

“Vlad,” Tomos said, sounding shocked. “Look.”

Vlad stopped moving long enough to take in the situation. Clara stood with her arms raised, wrists and palms pointed at the alien. The creature squirmed in pain, writhing toward its spherical transport. It shrunk in size, almost like it tried to be smaller in an effort to protect itself. Vlad moved slowly toward his wife, awed at her ability. As her face came into view, he saw her ashen features. Her eyes were nearly green as the center ring consumed the purple. She screamed again, as if the sound was being ripped involuntarily out of her.

The alien jerked, falling back into the transport. It slapped it arms about before lifting a tiny sphere in its hand. If Vlad wasn’t mistaken, he saw the creature smile seconds before it threw the sphere to the ground. The metallic-colored device shattered like glass but nothing else seemed to happen. Seconds later, it was gone.

Clara gasped and dropped her arms. Vlad caught her as she fell. Holding her on the ground, he stroked back her hair. She was damp and trembling.

“You’re infested,” she whispered weakly.

“Boys,” Tomos yelled. “Take cover. Don’t go in the water!”

The others ran and Vlad scooped up his wife to carry her after them. They dove behind columns. When he turned, he saw the drone blinking wildly. Vlad pressed Clara into the column and shielded her with his body. On instinct, he shifted and buried his head next to hers. The drone squealed seconds before a deafening explosion echoed the hollow.

Chapter Eleven

Clara coughed, pushing at the weight holding her down. Her arms met a chest and she struggled to see past the hair in her face. It did little good. The cavern was dark. She spit strands from her mouth as she endeavored to breathe the smoky air.

A moan sounded in the distance. Then a cough. Stones scraped stones.

“Boys?” Tomos’s voice came hoarse and gruff. “My lady?”

Clara managed a high-pitched wheeze and cough for an answer.

“Father,” Matus called. His voice reverberated off the hollow. “Nolan? Nolan!”

Suddenly the weight was lifted from her and she could see. Sven laid Vlad on the floor and began to examine him. “Vlad’s down but alive.”

The smoke began to clear as it was pulled from the room.

“The vents are working,” Sven said.

“Nolan?” Matus yelled louder.

“Son?” Tomos’s cry rose. “Nolan!”

“Stay with him,” Sven told Clara. “I have to find my brother.” She nodded weakly.

Sven disappeared into the darkness, leaving her alone with her husband. She felt along his body, over the hard shell of shifted flesh. He didn’t move, didn’t moan. His chest lifted only a little.

The fight had left her drained and unable to concentrate as she needed to. Her hands met the stickiness of his arms and withdrew, unsure as to what she touched. The back of her hand brushed near his waist only to bump into thick metal. She fumbled for it, blindly searching for the switch. A light shone and she pointed the beam at her husband’s face.

“Over here!” Sven ordered. She directed the light toward the sound. A body lay covered in rock. “I found him.”

The men worked to unbury Nolan. She placed her hand on Vlad, not taking the men’s light even as she desperately wanted to see how badly her husband was injured. As long as his chest moved she knew he lived. The feel of his slow heartbeat gave her comfort. It took some of her remaining energy to feel it against her palm beneath the shield of hard flesh.

“He lives,” Matus said after what seemed like an eternity of digging.

Another light turned on and Clara instantly began examining her husband. He was locked in his dragon form, unconscious. She drew the light down to his hands were she’d felt the stickiness. Bloody, charred flesh covered his hands and forearm. She looked at the other one. Though not as bad, it too was burned.

“I need a medic,” Clara said, gingerly placing her husband’s hands on his chest.

“I’ll go,” Sven said. The light moved with him as he crossed the distance only to stop. It shone over the caved-in wall hiding the opening. “I can’t get out. Our supplies are on the other side. We’re trapped.”

* * *

Clara wasn’t sure when it happened, but she had passed out from exhaustion. The last thing she recalled was being told they were trapped in the hollow. Someone must have laid her down next to Vlad and Nolan, because when she awoke she was sandwiched between the two men.

A soft glow surrounded them, flickering off Tomos’s naked back. He lifted a makeshift torch constructed of metal scrap and his clothing and stuck it in the underground river. He carried it to the torch that already burned from its place wedged between two rocks and lit it.

“The water burns?” Clara asked. On one side of them was the river. On the other was the scorched pattern centering around the metal debris of the droid. Only the columns had protected them from the full blast.

“It’s tainted.” Tomos glanced in her direction before eyeing Vlad and his son. He came closer and wedged the second torch into the wall. “They’re chemically stripping the ore from the mines. It took me a while to remember the smell. Years ago, when I first took up an axe, these strange aliens tried to sell us chemical mining technology. I remember the event because we felt sorry for them. They looked humanoid but afflicted with strange mutations that did not appear indicative of their original race—one’s face was covered in large growths, another had three extra fingers on one hand, yet another seeped white fluid from his eyes. They called their process hydraulic fracturing, or fracking. It’s efficient, but its cost to the land is great. Thinking back, their mutation was probably due to chemical exposure over a long period. We’re lucky the explosion today didn’t set the river on fire. Trolla was looking after us. But you don’t want to touch that water. We were able to start the fire from the burning debris of the droid.”

Clara looked to Nolan and then her husband. They were both shifted.

“They’re lucky,” Tomos said. “Their dragons saved their lives and protect them even now. They’ll heal faster like that, but they still need medical attention. I can’t clean the wounds in here.”

“What do we do?” she asked.

“We wait. Sven and Matus found a crack in the rock wall from the blast. They’ve gone for water and to see if they can find a way out. The main shaft is too blocked with debris.” Tomos lit another torch and found a place for it before joining her on the floor near his son.

“Can we dig out like you dug in?” She wasn’t sure how well she could help move boulders, but she would try.

He touched Nolan lovingly on the top of his head. “From the looks of it we’ll need weeks to dig, and we don’t have the supplies to last weeks.”

“The others will come for us,” Clara insisted. “Arianwen will come. She knows we’re here.”

“Eventually, yes. She’ll think I forgot time again and wait a night.” Tomos sighed. “When she does look, she might not realize we’re inside here. It will depend on how things look on the other side after this second rock fall. Vlad ordered the digging stopped so the mines are most likely empty. No one would have heard us. They will search the open shafts and forest first. Then, when someone realizes the rocks have fallen a second time, they will start to dig.”

Clara hid her fear. She appreciated his honesty, though she wasn’t sure she appreciated hearing it. Swallowing nervously, she tried to breathe. The air smelled foul and burned when taken in too deeply.

“The explosion brought down more rocks. The rubble is thicker than before. I’m not sure if they’ll be able to pick up our life signs from the other side.” Tomos stood, leaning to get a better view of the debris. “I worry we won’t have the energy to move the rocks ourselves. Our best bet is to find another way out.”

Clara looked at the two injured men. Though she did not know the healing capabilities of the Draig in their dragon forms, she doubted Vlad and Nolan could last weeks without medical attention.

“Those wounds need to be cleaned,” he said. “With luck, Sven and Matus will make it to the waterfall.”

She nodded in agreement.

“You fought bravely. You bring much honor on your family. You could have very well saved us. For that I thank you.”

“No.” Clara shook her head. “Not bravely. It was instinct. The Redde do not mingle well with the Tyoe.”

“You know that alien race?”

Clara nodded. “They establish profit bases all over the universe—mining, harvesting, whatever profit is to be had in a planet they try to exploit it. Most aliens let them in because they look harmless enough in their docile form, like little balls of jiggly fluid. They’re also backed by the Federation who like the results they produce. They’re good at what they do, highly efficient, but they will drain a planet of its resources before the hosting world knows what happened. They tried landing on Redding to harvest our trees. Our people did not mingle well. We communicate with beasts, and the psychic process, though harmless enough in most cases, boils the Tyoe from the inside out. We saw their methods when we felt into them. We can’t be in the same space with each other.”

“So it is truly the gods blessing that you were sent to marry Vlad,” Tomos concluded. He looked down at Nolan. “I have told my sons not to question or doubt the gods. Foolish boy. He is lucky Trolla did not have him killed for doubting her earlier.”

“You can’t blame him for this,” Clara said.

Tomos didn’t respond.

“I am surprised with your ore that you have not dealt with the Tyoe before now.”

“We’re not Federation,” Tomos said, as if that might explain it.

“Perhaps it took them longer to learn of you,” Clara said.

“We are blessed you are here, my lady. From what I’ve seen, you can protect us.” Tomos sighed heavily. “It will be a hard thing for your husband to understand. He has been raised to believe it is his duty to protect you. I know I had a hard time when I first married and discovered Ari had seen more battles than I had.”

“If I stood with my family, over thirty strong, it would be easy to be rid of the infestation. The Tyoe are rarely alone. However, I am just one. If more Tyoe come for us, I won’t be able to fight them. They’ll drain me with sheer numbers.” Clara stared at Vlad’s hands. She willed them to heal. The crusted blood and charred flesh was too much and she had to close her eyes.

“But you saw their plan?” Tomos asked. “How many are there? Where are they?”

“It’s not clear yet,” Clara said. “I can guarantee there are more of them. You should keep an eye on the river. I should have guessed when I started feeling ill in the tunnels that they were near, but I haven’t seen a Tyoe since I was a girl. I didn’t recognize the signs.”

“Just as I did not instantly know the smell of chemicals,” he said. Strangely, the comparison gave her some comfort.

When they stopped speaking, the silence was deafening and worry started to set in, making it hard for her to breathe. She looked down at Vlad and touched his face with her wrist. Her hands were sore from the Tyoe’s presence. Inside, she felt drained, worse than from the ceffyls, but she did not wish to complain. Seeing her dirty sleeve, she frowned. How had she not noticed her own state? She touched her hair. The tips felt singed on one side. Fate was indeed a strange thing. One moment she sat in the Noblae Portraite Gallery speaking to her noble father, statuesquely portraying the perfect Redde noblewoman, and the next she was trapped in a mine, dirty and singed and talking to a commoner as if he were an equal. She would bet her parents would not have predicted this fate for their daughter.

The low light shielded her dirty attire somewhat, but she found she couldn’t bring herself to care what she looked like. It was possible they would die in this hollow. What if the men did not make it back? What if they were trapped? What would get them first? Injuries? Lack of food and water? The smell of the chemicals coming off the river?

“How dangerous are the chemicals?” she asked, wanting to hear something besides silence. The idea of her body mutating with large head tumors left her trying not to breathe too deeply, which in turn caused the lightheadedness to become worse.

“From what I recall, large holes are drilled into the earth and then fluid is pushed into the holes to fracture the rock. The fluid is filled with chemicals that attracts the ore and helps it float upward. My guess is this river is a fracking stream. When our scientists looked at the fluid we found it to be toxic and dangerous. Without a way to make sure the chemicals are inert after use, you end up leaving active toxins in the ground or floating in these rivers to evaporate their gases into the air. The process may be faster than digging, but why would anyone want to give up the bounties of fresh food grown from the land and clean water? You cannot spray your land with harsh chemicals and not expect there to be a price to pay. No, the gods will provide as they always have.”

“I suppose most people prefer food simulators and use technological water filters,” Clara answered.

Tomos shook his head. He placed his hand on his son, absently checking him. “Food from the ground tastes better. Lord Mirek gave us a food simulator for the village years ago, in case there was ever a shortage. We used to dare each other to taste what was inside after too much drink. I don’t think it was ever repaired after Gront struck it with a pickaxe.” He shook his head. “No, we do not wish to live easy. We will live right. The easy way will lead to laziness and complacency and, in the case of these chemicals, any number of unknown medical and psychological illnesses.”